Tips on Real Time Marketing: Key Ingredient to Create that Perfect Marketing Recipe

Real-time marketing is not something unheard of, but the only difference is that marketers are trying to know it better and integrate it into their marketing mix.

Real-time is not some passing fad, but a natural step of the evolving social media marketing, and a great way to capitalize on social conversations. Social analytics is the captain that can guide your real time marketing ship.

Let’s get started.

Get into the buzz:

Tap into the excitement around an event or cultural experience. If you have planned something surrounding an upcoming event, track all the social conversations in the weeks leading up to it. Also, start to uncover the hot topics within the community so that you have enough time to research them and be confident to answer during the actual event.

Understand your segments:

Know who is initiating the conversation around the topic. This is the beginning of a real time strategy. As and when you will get familiar to your different audience segments, you can decide if you want a one-to-one or one-to-many approach.

For instance, are people reacting to a big event (New years Eve or a Super bowl) where a single message can address the general sentiment on the Internet or is it on a more individual level, where a more tailored response is required. Say, an old spice campaign, where Mustafa responded to questions asked by fans on Twitter.

See the bigger picture (oops! Conversation):

You like having conversations? How about spending more time listening to one. Watch the reaction of your audience to something as it happens. See beyond your campaign hastags and posts. Once, you have a feel of what resonates with your target audience find out whether there are other hashtags or topics that are appropriate to use to participate in the conversation.

Be an Early bird:

Real time marketing should not be behind time marketing. If you cannot capitalize on an event or cultural meme at the right time, you risk looking outdated and out of touch.

Keep it customer focused:

As with any marketing campaign, real time marketing effort requires to keep it customer centric. What matters to your customers. Ponder on this key question and create fabulous content.

Banish the gerontocracy:

A long approval process or a stringent approval process in real time marketing is the biggest hindrance. Give some creative freedom and let ideas fly. The success Behring Oreo’s Super Bowl campaign is that the agency running its campaign had free reign to create and approve content, which enabled Oreo to respond swiftly to the conversation as it was happening.

Beyond Need for speed:

Speed is an ally of real time marketing, but a sense of authenticity should prevail. Do not indulge in social media conversations that do not reflect our brand personality or is not relevant to your customers.